Bilateral development assistance

Ten buses set off Wednesday morning along Monivong Boulevard in Phnom Penh on a month-long test-run to determine if the public is ready to jettison their motorbikes and luxury cars and hop on board mass transport. This is the second attempt by the Japanese International Cooperation ...

A fleet of 10 municipal buses was set to roll out early this morning, commencing a one-month public bus service trial along a single route on Monivong Boulevard. If successful, the bus route will mark the first step in establishing a long-overdue public transit system to ...

Amid falling local production in Italy, officials there are calling on the European Union to scrap a preferential trade agreement that gives Cambodia’s rice exports duty-free advantages in the global market. According to a January 31 report from rice industry publication Oryza, members of the Italian ...

Work on a $143 million donor project to renovate the country’s creaking railway system, which is already over budget and years behind schedule, is now indefinitely postponed due to a lack of funds, with more than 300 km of rail still to be laid, a ...

The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) is looking to increase its annual budget to $33 million this year amid a need to upgrade its life-saving equipment, an official said yesterday. Approximately $10 million has already been raised, according to CMAC director Heng Ratana, who expressed confidence ...

At the end of a well-paved road just past the city’s airport sits a cluster of factories. Each one is barely discernible from the next – grey concrete walls and blue aluminium roofs. But one factory in the lot, MAG (Cambodia), is different. In a country ...

A member of the European Parliament is in Cambodia investigating agri-business firms accused of evicting hundreds of families while benefiting from a free-trade scheme with Europe worth millions of dollars, according to the NGO Equitable Cambodia. The visit from France’s Patrice Tirolien follows a resolution the ...

The French Agency for Development (AFD) has pledged $359 million in grants and loans to Cambodia over the next three years, state news agency AKP reported Friday. ...

The Chinese government on Wednesday donated 600 sets of radio transmitters to the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF) in order to increase the capacity and efficiency in information communication among armed forces. Speaking during a handover ceremony at the Headquarters of the Infantry on the outskirts ...

Phnom Penh Municipality has warned the public to expect prolonged traffic disturbances around O’Russei market in Prampi Makara district after construction began in the area Monday as part of the ongoing Japan-funded drainage project, a statement from City Hall said. The public has been asked for ...

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling on the bloc’s executive body to urgently act on an EU preferential trade scheme found to have carried high risks of human rights violations in Cambodia through land evictions for industrial sugar development. In a January 16 resolution, ...

The Cambodian Senate on Monday inaugurated three office buildings, which were constructed under the Chinese grant aid of 7.7 million U.S. dollars. The inauguration was presided over by Say Chhum, Acting- President of the Cambodian Senate, and Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo, and was attended ...

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday signed a spending bill that suspends some funding to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government until an independent investigation into last year’s disputed national election is carried out, or until the opposition CNRP ends its boycott of parliament. The bill targets ...

A draft US law that would require the World Bank to regularly report to congress about the condition of families displaced or still living in the Boeung Kak lake area was approved Wednesday by the House of Representatives. The bill includes language that specifically requires the ...

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a spending bill that would suspend some funding to Cambodia until the government carries out an independent investigation of July’s disputed national election and reforms its electoral system, or until the opposition ends its boycott of parliament. The ...

Cambodia and the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Thursday launched a new project to expand job services and improve labor market information with funding from China, according to an ILO media statement. The ILO/China South-South Cooperation Project to Expand Employment Services and Enhance Labor Market Information ...

As military police began a 10-day training program with the U.S. military in Phnom Penh on Tuesday, questions are being raised again over Washington’s ongoing support to Cambodian security forces involved in serious human rights abuses. On January 3, military police officers opened fire with AK-47 ...

Construction on Phnom Penh’s first international-standard critical-care center is expected to begin in April, and when completed it will offer state-of-the-art medical technology and highly trained staff, according to an official with the Japanese firm in charge of the project. “[Construction] is supposed to start from ...

China’s humanitarian assistance has helped relieve difficulties of flood- hit families, HIV/AIDS victims, elderly, disabled and poor people in Cambodia, beneficiaries said Friday. The Chinese government donated one million U.S. dollars to Cambodia in October for people who have faced hardships due to severe flooding last ...

Chinese military trainers on Wednesday successfully ended the 2nd mine clearance course for 52 Cambodian peacekeeping forces after a six-week intensive training. The course, instructed by a team of 12 Chinese military experts, had been conducted at the Institute for Peacekeeping Forces, Mine and Explosive Remnants ...

The Global Fund has backed down on its threat to cut or reduce health grants to Cambodia worth more than $100 million, saying they considered the fraction of misused funds that have been returned thus far a sign of sufficient good will. In a letter sent ...

The Construction of Second Chroy Changva Bridge, which is funded by Chin’s loan, is expected to be finished by the end of 2014, reducing the heavy traffic on the current Chroy Changva Bridge, said a government official. The construction project costs USD 27.5 millions and ...

International donors along with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Planning kick-started the Kingdom’s fourth Demographic and Health Survey in the capital yesterday. ...

The French Agency for Development will provide $26 million in loans to the Cambodian government to rehabilitate irrigation systems across three provinces in the northwest. Speaking at the signing ceremony for the deal yesterday, Aun Pornmoniroth, the Minister of Economy and Finance, said the new systems ...